Few scholars today bring together varied fields as intricately and firmly as Colin Dayan. Her research encompasses Caribbean literature, religion and history; American literature; anthropology; and the law, drawing power not only from the breadth of her knowledge, but also from her determination to "return thought to its practical calling." The recipient of numerous awards including Danforth, NEH and Guggenheim fellowships, she is currently working on slavery, incarceration, and torture.

Her major fields include Caribbean Social History and Literature (especially Haiti and Jamaica);
early American religious and legal history; Nineteenth-Century American, French,
and English literary history; African-American Studies and American Studies.